This invention relates in general to radio communication systems, and particularly to an apparatus for communicating multi-lingual messages and method therefor.
Presently, service providers provide information services to consumers carrying a communication unit such as a selective call receiver or transceiver by way of a radio communication system that communicates radio messages to the communication unit. These services can include, but are not limited to, news services, stock exchange services, and weather services. Additionally, service providers provide general messages services in which an interested party can remotely send customized messages to a consumer carrying a communication unit. These custom messages are often transmitted as alphanumeric messages which inform the recipient consumer of the caller""s intent.
Messages generated by either information services or custom message services are generally transmitted in the native language of the country in which such services originate. Taking Europe, for example, a message originating from Great Britain will be transmitted in the English language while a message originating from France will be transmitted in the French language. As one might expect, communication units are generally programmed at each country to decode the language of a corresponding country.
Presently, the European Radio Messaging (ERMES) protocol provides a method for communication units to decode more than one language without requiring reprogramming of the communication unit on a country-by-country basis. Specifically, the ERMES protocol includes a character set identifier, which is appended to the message transmitted by a radio communication system. This field identifies the language of origin of the message transmitted. When a message is intercepted by a communication unit, the communication unit decodes the character set identifier prior to processing the message for display to a user of the communication unit. To process the message, the character set identifier is used by the communication unit to index through its internal memory (generally, non-volatile) to select an appropriate bitmap for displaying the message.
Although this method is in some applications adequate, it suffers from several disadvantages. First, the use of the character set identifier adds overhead to message transmission, thereby reducing bandwidth utilization of the communication system. Additionally, if during transmission the radio message experiences interference such that a portion of the message including the character set identifier is corrupted, then identification of the language origin of the message cannot be determined and no portion of the message can be displayed.
Accordingly, a method and apparatus that overcomes the foregoing disadvantages in the prior art is desirable.